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CX Deployment on Kubernetes

This document illustrates the procedure and steps to deploy Expertflow CX-core on Kubernetes.

Before you begin, verify

Prepare for CX Deployment

Step 1: Clone the Expertflow CX repository

CODE 
git clone -b CX-4.5 https://efcx:RecRpsuH34yqp56YRFUb@gitlab.expertflow.com/cim/cim-solution.git
BASH 
cd cim-solution/kubernetes

Step 2: Create Namespaces

  1. Create a namespace expertflow for all Expertflow components

Run the following command on the control-plane node.

BASH 
kubectl create namespace expertflow

  1. Create a namespace ef-external for all the external elements of the Expertflow CX solution such as Mongo, Redis, MinIO, etc.

Run the following command on the control-plane node.

CODE 
kubectl create namespace ef-external

Step 3: Apply Image Pull secret

  1. Run the following commands for applying ImagePullSecrets of Expertflow CX images.

BASH 
kubectl apply -f pre-deployment/registryCredits/ef-imagePullSecret-expertflow.yaml
BASH 
kubectl apply -f pre-deployment/registryCredits/ef-imagePullSecret-ef-external.yaml

Step 4: Update FQDN

Expertflow CX should be accessible by a fully qualified domain name. Assign the FQDN that resolves to the control plane node or KubeVIP.

Replace <FQDN> with your FQDN for Expertflow CX and run this command.

BASH 
sed -i 's/devops[0-9]*.ef.com/<FQDN>/g' cim/ConfigMaps/* pre-deployment/grafana/* pre-deployment/keycloak/* cim/Ingresses/nginx/* cim/Ingresses/traefik/*

Setup SQL Database

Expertflow CX requires any of the following PostgreSQL for Expertflow CX deployment for storing configuration data.

If you are deploying external components with provided TLS certificates, you must run the following command before deployment:-

BASH 
kubectl apply -f external-tls-secrets/

PostgreSQL RECOMMENDED

Skip this step if you already have any of the other two databases in your environment.

  1. If you do not have PostgreSQL in your environment, create ConfigMap of PostgreSQL to create necessary databases and preload it with bootstrap configurations.

    CODE 
    kubectl -n ef-external  create configmap ef-postgresql-license-manager-cm --from-file=./pre-deployment/licensemanager/licensemanager.sql

  2. Update the password for postgresql database with required value using Auth enablement for Redis, MongoDB , PostgreSQL and ActiveMQ

  3. Deploy the postgresql

    BASH 
    helm upgrade --install=true --wait=true --timeout=10m0s --debug --namespace=ef-external --values=external/bitnami/postgresql/values.yaml ef-postgresql external/bitnami/postgresql

  4. For managed Postgresql, see Using Managed PostgreSQL for configuring PostgreSQL for Expertflow CX.

Deploy CX External Components

Expertflow CX requires the following 3rd party components.

Redis

Key-Values based Caching engine, used by most of the EF-CX components.

MongoDB

NoSQL Database, maintains and serves as primary back store for EF-CX solution.

Minio

S3 compliant object storage.

KeyCloak

Realm based auth management tool.

You may use them from your existing environment or from a cloud provider .

Setup KeyCloak

Prerequisites

Before proceeding with the keycloak deployment, please update the backend database connection string parameters ( when using no-default passwords )

  1. edit external/bitnami/keycloak/values.yaml and update the password for postgresql database

    YAML 
    externalDatabase:
  host: "ef-postgresql.ef-external.svc.cluster.local"
  port: 5432
  user: sa
  database: keycloak_db
  password: "Expertflow123"
  existingSecret: ""
  existingSecretPasswordKey: ""
Keycloak Deployment

KeyCloak is used as the centralized authentication and authorization component for Expertflow CX. Follow these steps to setup KeyCloak.

  1. On the master node, create a global ConfigMap for KeyCloak. Change the hostname and other parameters before applying this command ( For Example . FQDN and relative paths )

    BASH 
    kubectl apply -f pre-deployment/keycloak/ef-keycloak-configmap.yaml

  2. Now, deploy KeyCloak by running the following command

    BASH 
    helm upgrade --install=true --wait=true --timeout=10m0s --debug --namespace=ef-external --values=external/bitnami/keycloak/values.yaml keycloak external/bitnami/keycloak/

  3. Check the KeyCloak installation status. You can check the status of deployment by using the following command:

    BASH 
    kubectl -n ef-external rollout status sts keycloak

Setup MongoDB

Expertflow CX using MongoDB for storing all CX events, activities, and some configuration data as well.

Skip this step if you already have MongoDB in your environment that can be used by Expertflow CX. For using MongoDB from a managed environment, see Using Managed MongoDB for necessary configurations.

  1. update the Authentication information for-example mongodb root password in the helm chart’s external/bitnami/mongodb/values.yaml file . For reference please consult Auth enablement for Redis, MongoDB , PostgreSQL and ActiveMQ

  2. Deploy MongoDB by running the following command.

    BASH 
    helm upgrade --install=true --wait=true --timeout=10m0s --debug --namespace=ef-external --values=external/bitnami/mongodb/values.yaml mongo external/bitnami/mongodb/

  3. Check the MongoDB deployment status by running the following command:

    BASH 
    kubectl -n ef-external rollout status sts mongo-mongodb

Setup MinIO

Expertflow CX using MinIO for storing files exchanged between agents, customers, and/or bots. Install using Helm using following command:

  1. Update the minio helm chart with the required Authentication information in external/bitnami/minio/values.yaml . for details, please consult the Auth enablement for Redis, MongoDB , PostgreSQL and ActiveMQ

  2. Deploy the minio helm chart

CODE 
helm upgrade --install=true --wait=true --timeout=10m0s --debug --namespace=ef-external --values=external/bitnami/minio/values.yaml minio external/bitnami/minio/

Wait for the minio deployment to get ready

CODE 
kubectl -n ef-external  rollout status deployment  minio --timeout=5m
Digital Channel Icons Bootstrapping

proceed with icons bootstrapping.

BASH 
kubectl apply -f scripts/minio-helper.yaml
CODE 
kubectl -n ef-external --timeout=90s wait --for=condition=ready pod minio-helper
CODE 
kubectl -n ef-external cp post-deployment/data/minio/bucket/default minio-helper:/tmp/
CODE 
kubectl -n ef-external cp scripts/icon-helper.sh minio-helper:/tmp/
CODE 
kubectl -n ef-external exec -it minio-helper -- /bin/sh /tmp/icon-helper.sh
CODE 
kubectl delete -f scripts/minio-helper.yaml

Setup Redis

CX uses Redis for storing active system state of most of the CX objects.

  1. Update the redis helm chart’s external/bitnami/redis/values.yaml file with the password value as mentioned in Auth enablement for Redis, MongoDB , PostgreSQL and ActiveMQ

  2. Run the following command to deploy Redis.

BASH 
helm upgrade --install=true --wait=true --timeout=10m0s --debug --namespace=ef-external --values=external/bitnami/redis/values.yaml redis external/bitnami/redis/

Setup Realtime Reports

See Setup Grafana for embedded dashboards for details.

Setup Historical Reports

  1. Install Superset

  2. Setup Reporting Connector

Setup ActiveMQ

Expertflow CX uses ActiveMQ for message queuing between CX core components. To deploy ActiveMQ

CODE 
kubectl apply -f cim/StatefulSet/ef-amq-statefulset.yaml

Wait for the AMQ StatefulSet to be ready

CODE 
kubectl wait pods ef-amq-0 -n ef-external --for condition=Ready --timeout=600s

Custom Password Interpolation

Below are the interpolations when using custom or not-default password for mongodb, minio, redis, postgresql and activeMQ

Entity

Placement

MongoDB

  1. Update MONGODB_PASSWORD in cim/Configmaps/ef-connection-env-configmap.yaml

PostgreSQL

  1. Update the YAML object externalDatabase.password at line number 1140 in external/bitnami/keycloak/values.yaml

  2. Update DB_PASS in cim/ConfigMaps/ef-license-manager-configmap.yaml

minio

  1. Update ACCESSKEY in cim/ConfigMaps/ef-file-engine-configmap.yaml

  2. Update SECRETKEY in cim/ConfigMaps/ef-file-engine-configmap.yaml

Redis

  1. Update REDIS_PASSWORD in cim/Configmaps/ef-connection-env-configmap.yaml

keycloak

N/A

activeMQ

N/A

Deploy CX-Core Components

If you are using TLS enabled external components, copy the tls secrets to expertflow namespace before deploying CX-core components using the following commands:-

BASH 
kubectl get secret mongo-mongodb-ca -n ef-external  -o yaml | sed 's/namespace: ef-external/namespace: expertflow/' | kubectl create -f -
kubectl get secret redis-crt -n ef-external  -o yaml | sed 's/namespace: ef-external/namespace: expertflow/' | kubectl create -f -
kubectl get secret ef-postgresql-crt -n ef-external  -o yaml | sed 's/namespace: ef-external/namespace: expertflow/' | kubectl create -f -

  1. Setup default translation file for Agent Desk

    CODE 
    kubectl -n expertflow  create configmap ef-app-translations-cm --from-file=pre-deployment/app-translations/unified-agent/i18n

  2. Setup default canned messages translations file for Agent Desk

    CODE 
    kubectl -n expertflow  create configmap ef-canned-messages-cm --from-file=pre-deployment/app-translations/unified-agent/canned-messages

  3. Apply CRM ConfigMap for Agent Desk

    CODE 
    kubectl -n expertflow create configmap ef-crm-service-cm --from-file=pre-deployment/crm-service/

  4. Apply Conversation Controller ConfigMaps

    BASH 
    kubectl -n expertflow create configmap ef-conversation-controller-actions-cm --from-file=pre-deployment/conversation-Controller/actions
kubectl -n expertflow create configmap ef-conversation-controller-actions-utils-cm --from-file=pre-deployment/conversation-Controller/utils
kubectl -n expertflow create configmap ef-conversation-controller-actions-pycache-cm --from-file=pre-deployment/conversation-Controller/__pycache__

  5. Apply all configurations in the ConfigMaps folder using:

    CODE 
    kubectl apply -f cim/ConfigMaps/

  6. Create services for all deployment EF components

    CODE 
    kubectl apply -f cim/Services/

  7. Apply all the Deployment manifests 

    CODE 
    kubectl apply -f cim/Deployments/

  8. Before proceeding to the the next steps, wait for all the solution components to be up and ready.

    BASH 
    kubectl -n expertflow get pods

Team Announcement CronJob

Run the following command to setup team announcement CronJob.

It requires the solution be up and running.

BASH 
kubectl apply -f pre-deployment/team-announcement/

Setup SSL Certificates

Expertflow CX ships with self-signed certificates for all the ingresses. To apply your custom / domain-signed SSL certificates see Apply Domain-signed SSL Certificates.

Setup Ingress Routes

For RKE2-based Ingresses using Ingress-Nginx Controller

BASH 
kubectl apply -f cim/Ingresses/nginx/

Change Service type from Cluster IP to NodePort:-

If a kubernetes service requires access over node IPs, you can patch the service using ( update the required parameters before executing )

CODE 
kubectl patch svc <service name> \
-n <namespace> 
--type='json' \
-p '[{"op":"replace","path":"/spec/type","value":"NodePort"},{"op":"replace","path":"/spec/ports/0/nodePort","value":<port number in the range of 30000 to 32676>}]'

Configurations

  1. Import default keyCloak realm for essential KeyCloak resources, permissions, and authentication configurations.

  2. If you intend to use Apache Superset for reporting, follow Configure and import historical report templates to configure the Reporting solution.

  3. For customer channel configuration, see customer channels.

  4. For CX-Voice component deployment this guide

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